11. Bangkok

So this week we got to Bangkok after a long long trip in a minivan shared with 10 asian people and a crazy driver who bribed a policeman not to get a speeding ticket. Luckily the city of angels, as Bangkok is known, didn’t disappoint me. It is filled with its beautifully decorated temples, giant golden Buddhas, colourful food markets and lively canals.

It is funny that apart from really touristic spots, the rest of the city is almost tourist-free. Some of the former spots include Khaosan Road, which we have dubbed “guirilandia” in Spanish, meaning a place full of tacky foreigners, listening to American music while eating a hamburger and thinking "wow, this is so exotic" and the Grand Palace, where they fool you into buying an expensive entrance for seeing basically an emerald Buddha surrounded by sweaty Japanese and loud Italians.

In these touristy areas, people seem to be quite cranky, but elsewhere they welcome you with broad smiles and always try to help you out. We managed to find a couple of very good places to eat there, all of them under 2 euros a meal (!!). There is one great family owned restaurant, with the typical grandmother and 100% traditional food (with the spicy tuned down a bit, luckily!). Another place is a library/restaurant owned by a British expat and a Thai cook… a great combo! And finally, the guest house we are in right now is very comfy and has great staff too.

With all this, I could say it’s been a great pleasure being here, but I must confess I am more than ever counting the days (or rather the hours) to get back home and eat mom-cooked meals, sleep in my bed and see all my friends and family. Home, sweet home.

10. Heading west again

Since last week time has gone by quite quickly. The first couple of days were just full of washing up and getting things ready for our departure. We were so fed up with not moving that we decided to head to Battambang one day before the established date. It turns out it was a great choice, as the hotel there was quite luxurious (especially if we compare it with our previous standards) and it even had a pool!!

So on Thursday we had a sunny morning bathing in the pool, after which we felt like a million bucks. On the afternoon we visited the Buddhist University to try to make an agreement with them for the project. We were received by around 30 monks in their orange robes and a heavy thunderstorm with heavy rain. It was quite a strange meeting, where they asked for much but didn't offer in return, but it was interesting and at the same time surrealist to be there.

On Friday we headed out of the country through Pailin, with a beautiful road and some nice temples along the way. We had to cross the border walking, and once on the other side pay a taxi to take us to the pier. The sky was desperately cloudy on the boat and it has remained the same way for the last days. I guess it is the rainy season here in Koh Chang. But scenery is incredible, and with hammocks overlooking the ocean sprinkled with a little bit of adventure on a motorbike riding like Brits, the days have gone by all right.


On a couple of days we will be leaving to Bangkok...!

9. Departures

Here I am once again. Let me tell you about this week, which has been quite a rollercoaster.

As I told you last time, I started the week counting the days that separate me from the return to civilization. So you can imagine that a week with a fair share of rain (let me translate: muddy/slippery tracks and wet clothes) was more than enough to get me lazy and even more looking forward to the end of the week.

Moreover, since the end of the year was approaching, teachers relaxed completely and missed some of their classes, and some of mine as well. So I finished the week quite tired and when they told me there would be a party on Saturday to celebrate that the end of the year was close I was quite pleased.

I was supposed to work until Tuesday, so when the party was over and some kids started telling me goodbye I thought it was just a “see you later” kind of greeting. It seemed strange that some seemed so sad and kept talking about my trip back to Spain, but it all made sense when I found out (already back home) that it was indeed my last day in the school.

So somehow I left without saying a proper goodbye to many of the kids, and the strange thing is that teachers didn’t greet me either, which for us westerners is kind of strange, to say the least. I am thus left with the strange feeling that things have ended without me noticing it, and somehow I think the feeling will remain for quite some time.

It is as though from one day to another, whole relationships have been left undone and ties have been cut, because after two months of ups and downs, I had become very attached to kids, and apparently they too. That is why, when they asked me when I would come back, it was heartbreaking for me to answer "I don't know", hiding an almost certain “Never”.

But as my favourite sentence goes, "The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving.” So we go on, move on, depart.

8. Surprise, surprise

They say you are supposed to be completely adapted to a country when you stop discovering things about it. Well, I guess I am still far from this, as I started telling you last week. Here is just a list of new things discovered by explorer-Sarah in the last days:

Fact no. 1: If a dog here is hit on the road, the owners of the animal fear that the driver of the car will take it and sell it …To bars, where he will become a first-class appetizer for drunk people.

Fact no. 2: The 15^th of July marks the beginning of a Buddhist holiday that lasts three months and in which a candle is lit the whole time! My Buddha, that is a big candle! Apparently monks also have the right to go from home to home (and inside the schools, too) asking for food and money. If you don’t give it to them (like in our house of strange/foreign people) they look at you with disappointment… And probably curse you for a thousand years.

Fact no. 3: It is illegal to bet in the lottery in this country, but if you bribe the police, you can have Thai and Vietnamese tickets in your house without risking a fine. Turns out a lot of people use this trick and lottery is quite popular, because you never know, you might have a lucky strike and become rich overnight.

Fact no. 4: When reaping season comes, just around this time, whole families move to the back of the houses of the owners of the field and camp there, working from dawn till dusk. They get paid only for each bag of rice or corn collected, and only 1 or 2 dollars. It is just enough for one day food for one adult, but they don’t work the whole year, have many kids and no kind of health care or insurance. So children have to work with their parents following them from field to field. They don’t get any kind of education either, so their future seems hopelessly sealed to the land.

Fact no. 5: two months is a long time. Living in these conditions of isolation, surrounded by poverty and with a strict routine has taken its toll on all of us and we are starting to anxiously await our return to the “modern and civilized world”. It will be soon, the next 28^th of August, when we will visit Battambang and then leave to Thailand for a much merited 10-day rest.

Let me stop here before I fill three pages of good and bad discoveries, hopefully we can laugh about them in person soon enough. Have a happy week in whatever part of the world you may be and, above all, think about me next time your toilet flushes and your shower delights you with warm water.

7. The so called rainy season

One of the main things I’ve learnt here is that everything is always different than what you expect it to be. This might seem surprising, but it is no wonder when you are, almost literally, on the other side of the world. Let’s just say things are upside down most of the time.

So, for example, I find my weekend-day (Sunday) here is much more boring than my weekdays, which I never would have guessed. Mainly because we cannot go anywhere, and although staying at home is nice, having on the one hand no internet, no books to read, no TV, and on the other tons of washing and cleaning to do (well, to say the truth I need both hands for this) makes it the most boring day by far!

Another surprise is the so called rainy season. It was supposed to rain every day, or that’s what I expected. Instead, this region is one of the exceptions, and here it almost doesn’t rain at all in July! Last week, I told you this made my trips easier, but this week has just been horrible because of the dust. I swear I could feel my lungs rusting with dirt!! Thanks to the sky, rain finally fell on Sunday.

The great discovery of this time was pan-pon-pin-pan-pon. What the hell is that, you might ask? Well, it was a sound we heard every morning, and it turns out it is the bread seller! So now we can have a French-style breakfast (probably one of the only good things they left in this country.

6. Sweet and sour

So we started July in Sampov Loun. It is supposed to be the rainy season here, although luckily almost no rain has fallen yet (which almost left us without water in our shower). Amazingly too, the bridges to my school have been finished (!), which is great as it makes rainy trips much less difficult.

Days are starting to roll on quite fast as I am starting to get used to the temperature and also to my work, which makes everything easier. Students begin to remember things and have become really trusting, playing with me and trying to talk a bit of English. Today we spent the day preparing wonderful drawings for the kids.

On the Khmer side of it, I have basic-words-for-survival-knowledge, which comes in quite handy in dinners like the two we have had this week with the teachers. I feel I have found my little space in this place, where I seem to be able to belong quite comfortably for one more month.

The downside, as there always is one, is that someone stole my wallet this week. As you can imagine, this is a huge pain in the ass, especially as it makes it the second time since I got here (seriously, what is wrong with me?!?!). However I must put things in perspective, and there is nothing more I can do but move forward. So, more next week, and pictures whenever I get decent internet.

Chapter 5: And you say this is routine?

Here I am once again. As incredible as it may seem, I got here one month ago, and things are still falling into place right now. Getting used to life here is a challenge from the second you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. Here is how my day goes on:

I wake up at 6h30 everyday, to enjoy a peaceful breakfast made up of tea and some biscuits. Well, to tell the truth, it is not always peaceful, as generally the first thing to do is to bathe in anti-mosquito (a great smell for the early morning), put water to boil, kill the ants in the sugar....

Anyway, at 7h30 one of the teachers picks me up on his motorbike. The road is generally quite bumpy, which helps me come down to my earthly duties. When I get to school, it is almost eight, so I go into the classroom and I am greeted by all the students, reciting some poetry about something in Khmer, to which I reply O Kun (Thank you) before moving on to 3 hours of teaching.

By 11h30 I am hungry as hell, so I discover with great surprise the rice that is my daily meal. In less than 10 minutes, the kids start getting to the library, where I eat, and start drawing, coloring, playing… At 13h00 I am back to work (What is your name? How old are you? Where are you from? What is your name? How old are you? Where are you from? ) until 17h30, with half an hour of rest.

I get home just in time for a throw-yourself-some-cold-water-with-a-pot shower, then I eat lunch and go to bed… at 9! This goes on every week for six days, and the seventh is dedicated to.... resting? You wish! There are always house chores and lessons to prepare.

One would think this is a crazy way of spending holidays, but if I could show you the smiles of the kids, the baby steps in communicating with people of completely different backgrounds and all the discoveries and surprises, maybe you would understand.